SMU has been bringing the "world's most interesting and provocative people to Dallas for more than 25 years." The lecture series being offered at SMU will shape the way you look at the world today and tomorrow. These individuals have made history and there is something to be said about them. Learn about the mistakes they made, the lessons they learned, and listen to what they hope to learn or see you do one day.

Tickets to see the each lecture is $40 per person. That to me is a bargain. Tickets have already sold out to several of the SMU lectures, just FYI.

Tuesday, January 27, 2009 at 8 p.m. in McFarlin Auditorium - Chris Jordan is an internationally acclaimed photographic artist and activist whose work explores the detritus of American mass culture. His newest series, titled Running the Numbers, depicts the staggering statistics that define contemporary America, in huge intricately detailed panels as large as thirty feet wide. These huge works invite the viewer to walk up close and see every detail as a metaphor for the role of the individual in our hypermodern society. (Visit the SMU Lecture Series and download the full bio from their site.)

Tuesday, March 3, 2009 at 8 p.m. in McFarlin Auditorium - Nicholas D. Kristof, a columnist for The New York Times since November 2001, writes op-ed columns that appear twice a week. He is temporarily on leave to write a book with his wife about women in the developing world.

Kristof has lived on four continents, reported on six, and traveled to 140 countries, plus all 50 states, every Chinese province and every main Japanese island. He’s also one of the very few Americans to be at least a two-time visitor to every member of the “Axis of Evil.” During his travels, he has had unpleasant experiences with malaria, wars, an Indonesian mob carrying heads on pikes, and an African airplane crash.

In 1990 Kristof and his wife, Sheryl WuDunn, also a Times journalist, won a Pulitzer Prize for their coverage of China’s Tiananmen Square democracy movement. They were the first married couple to win a Pulitzer for journalism. (Visit the SMU Lecture Series and download the full bio from their site.)

Tuesday, April 14, 2009 at 8 p.m. in McFarlin Auditorium - President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, internationally known as Africa’s “Iron Lady,” is a leading promoter of peace, justice, and democratic rule. In November 2005, she was elected President of Liberia and became the first woman to lead an African nation. The Harvard educated former World Bank economist won the election with an impressive 59.4 % of the vote.

Before her election, she worked tirelessly to bring justice to her people in Liberia and had spent more than a year in jail at the hands of the military dictatorship of General Samuel Doe. After having her life threatened by former President Charles Taylor, she campaigned relentlessly for Taylor’s removal from office and played an active and supportive role in the establishing the Transitional Government of Liberia as the country prepared for elections in 2005. (Visit the SMU Lecture Series and download the full bio from their site.)

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About the Author

Jennifer Conley is a co-founder of ILiveinDallas.com. She promotes and reports on the art and cultural events and happenings around Dallas. For her day job she runs an incubator for tech startups in DFW called the Gravity Center. Follow Jennifer Conley on Twitter.